Live Play Data

Goblin Bombardment

· Enchantment · Modern Horizons 2 (MH2)

Live Inclusion

Buy on TCGplayer

Times Brought

887

Decks Running

415

Median Cast Turn

Drawn → Played

69%

Format

Multiplayer 1v1

42% of games where Goblin Bombardment resolved ended in a win for the caster, a +13.2 percentage-point lift over games where it stayed in the library, across 124 tracked participations.

Goblin Bombardment sits in 5% of Commander decks tracked on Playgroup Live, a niche but deliberate slot for red strategies that generate expendable creatures. Across 845 tracked games, casters post a 42% win rate versus 28% when the card never left the library. That +13.2 percentage-point gap is a meaningful early signal, though both sample sizes remain directional rather than conclusive.

The cast profile tells its own story. Median first cast lands on turn 5, later than a 2-mana card might suggest. Only 18% of casts land exactly on curve. Players tend to hold it: the median copy sits in hand for a full turn before being played, and 36% of instances that were drawn and cast were played the same turn they were drawn. That patience makes sense for a card that needs a creature-generating engine already in motion to pay off.

Goblin Bombardment is legal in Commander and is not banned in any format where it is legal. Its home is squarely in red token or sacrifice strategies, and the top commander list reflects that: Krenko, Mob Boss leads by a wide margin, followed by sacrifice-synergy commanders across Jund and Mardu color identities.

At a glance

5% of tracked Commander decks include Goblin Bombardment
T5 median first-cast turn, later than its 2-mana cost implies
69% of drawn copies reached the battlefield before the game ended
42% win rate in games where Goblin Bombardment was cast
76% battlefield stickiness once it resolves
362 distinct players have brought this card to a tracked game

First-cast turn

n=137

14%

12%

16%

42%

T6-9

T10+

Median 5 P25 3 · P75 7 · max 17

On curve 18% (19 / 137 cast on T2) Cast same turn as drawn 36%

The "good card" funnel

887 brought · 362 players

Brought to game

887

Ever drawn

198

Reached battlefield

137

Still on board at game end

104

69%

Of 887 Goblin Bombardments brought to games, 198 were drawn, 137 of those were cast, and 76% of cast copies stayed on the battlefield through the end of the game.

≥ +4.7pp

Players who cast this card win 42% of the time (n=124) , vs 28% when it never left the library (n=569).

When players drew this card but left it in hand, they won 25% (n=52) — about the same as leaving it in the library. Those players survived long enough to draw it, so the gap above is about the card resolving, not just about surviving.

Observed gap +13.2pp; 95% confidence interval +4.7pp to +21.7pp. Correlational, not causal: powerful payoffs also get cast more often in games you are already winning.

Final zone distribution

218 instances

4.6%

Library

47.7%

Battlefield

17.4%

Graveyard

4.6%

Exile

Most copies end the game on the battlefield or in hand, a sign that Goblin Bombardment stays relevant once it resolves rather than being sacrificed away or answered quickly.

Commanders that played this card

in tracked games

Krenko, Mob Boss dominates the commander list by deck count, but the spread across goblin, token, and sacrifice commanders from mono-red to Jund shows this card is not a one-archetype slot.

Card text

Goblin Bombardment

Enchantment

Sacrifice a creature: This enchantment deals 1 damage to any target.

Modern Horizons 2 (MH2) · Rare · Illustrated by Dave Kendall

Frequently Asked

How often is Goblin Bombardment drawn and cast in a game?

Across 845 tracked multiplayer games where Goblin Bombardment was in the deck, it was drawn 22% of the time. Of those 198 drawn copies, 69% were cast before the game ended. Median first cast lands on turn 5, consistent with a card that players wait to deploy until they have a creature engine running.

Does casting Goblin Bombardment actually improve your win rate?

In 124 participations where Goblin Bombardment was cast, the normalized win rate is 42%. In 569 participations where it never left the library, that figure is 28%. The +13.2 point delta is the clearest signal we have that the card contributes to wins rather than just tagging along in winning decks. The sample is large enough to treat this as a strong directional finding, though we still describe it as directional pending further data.

What commanders play Goblin Bombardment most?

Krenko, Mob Boss leads the top-commander list by a significant margin, which fits: Krenko floods the board with Goblin tokens that Bombardment converts into a direct damage outlet or sacrifice fodder to protect against exile effects. Zada, Hedron Grinder and Atla Palani, Nest Tender follow, showing the card stretches from mono-red goblin storm into creature-engine strategies across Naya and Jund colors.

How sticky is Goblin Bombardment once it resolves?

76% of cast copies remained on the battlefield at the end of the game. That is solid for a 2-mana enchantment in a format with plenty of enchantment removal. Part of that stickiness is selection effect: Goblin Bombardment tends to appear in pods where removing it is low priority compared to stopping creatures.

Is Goblin Bombardment banned in Commander?

No. Goblin Bombardment is legal in Commander and unrestricted. It is also legal in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Historic, and several other formats. It has never appeared on the Commander banned list, partly because its power ceiling is gated by the requirement to sacrifice creatures, making it reliant on a supporting engine.

How concentrated is this card's data across players?

The data is well-spread. 362 distinct players have brought Goblin Bombardment to a tracked game, and the single heaviest contributor accounts for only 4% of all tracked instances. That breadth strengthens the reliability of the play patterns we observe.